Willow Baby is a mixture of hip hop and urban influence and summer melodies. The X Days LP was released April 13, 2014. Within/Without LP is expected to be released by June 2014, and it is lo-fi, acoustic, minimalistic, and recorded live.
"Within/Without was written right after a bad breakup. I was so upset about it and I just picked up my guitar one night and the words just flew out of my mouth and song after song came out and wouldn't stop until I had a full album. I just lay on my bed and played out the pain, and I recorded the demos on my iPhone [she laughs]. It was so good when I finally got to play 'Give Up', 'I Found Out', and 'Xiousie' [from Within/Without] at my first show with that album under wraps."
What was the biggest challenge you faced while recording these two albums? It seems like a lot to have under your belt while balancing another job and college.
"My biggest challenge was overcoming my fear. I obviously had a lot going on, so I prayed a lot to let all the anxieties go. It definitely helped to have my producer on my side the whole time, too. But leaning on the power of prayer was the biggest remedy of all. Nobody really helped me out besides my best friend. I had to hold my own hand."
What was it like bearing yourself so raw into these albums?
"It was pretty scary. I felt like everyone could see through me."
How did you get over that?
"I thought of Miley and how she's so uninhibited and that gave me an ego boost. I think that her artistry can be shocking sometimes, but in the end she always seems to pull it off gracefully."
"I was alone throughout a lot of the process, so that kind of freaked me out. But it helped me."
What were your inspirations for these two Lps, since they came out basically hand in hand?
"The X Days was written about this guy I had totaly fallen in love with, and my friends were making these dark beats and I kept on telling them to make happier ones [she laughs]. So when they did, I totally jumped on them and that's where 'Too Much Pain' and 'This Moment' come from, and 'Too Much Pain' is an absolute true story, haha. I really wanted to move to California, because I missed everything about it so much. The rainy days here were getting too much for me, I like being outside all the time. I would say skateboarding was the biggest influence for The X Days."
Why was skateboarding such a huge influence?
"In my hometown, haha, it was the only thing that made me happy."
That's awesome. I can't believe you haven't been on the radio yet!
"I know! Same!"
Who were your biggest musical influences before you started writing?
"Lorde had just popped up on my TV screen one day and I was like, who is this girl? How does she do that? She was so great. But mostly myself, because you can't do what other people do. I find that so awesome."
So what did you learn most, then, after these wrapped?
"I learned so much...like, I learned how important it is to do what you love. That's something I'll never forget."
...
"So many things got in the way, I felt like. I had just gotten out of rehab in March 2013, so that was a milestone but everything leading up to that were getting in the way of it. So I learned to keep pushing myself, you know, climb every mountain. Because I didn't want to end up hurting other people mostly."
Congrats, I cannot wait for this to go big. I hope you get to California, too!
"Ahh, thanks. Thank you!"
Interviewed by Piper Hue for willowbabyofficial.com
"Within/Without was written right after a bad breakup. I was so upset about it and I just picked up my guitar one night and the words just flew out of my mouth and song after song came out and wouldn't stop until I had a full album. I just lay on my bed and played out the pain, and I recorded the demos on my iPhone [she laughs]. It was so good when I finally got to play 'Give Up', 'I Found Out', and 'Xiousie' [from Within/Without] at my first show with that album under wraps."
What was the biggest challenge you faced while recording these two albums? It seems like a lot to have under your belt while balancing another job and college.
"My biggest challenge was overcoming my fear. I obviously had a lot going on, so I prayed a lot to let all the anxieties go. It definitely helped to have my producer on my side the whole time, too. But leaning on the power of prayer was the biggest remedy of all. Nobody really helped me out besides my best friend. I had to hold my own hand."
What was it like bearing yourself so raw into these albums?
"It was pretty scary. I felt like everyone could see through me."
How did you get over that?
"I thought of Miley and how she's so uninhibited and that gave me an ego boost. I think that her artistry can be shocking sometimes, but in the end she always seems to pull it off gracefully."
"I was alone throughout a lot of the process, so that kind of freaked me out. But it helped me."
What were your inspirations for these two Lps, since they came out basically hand in hand?
"The X Days was written about this guy I had totaly fallen in love with, and my friends were making these dark beats and I kept on telling them to make happier ones [she laughs]. So when they did, I totally jumped on them and that's where 'Too Much Pain' and 'This Moment' come from, and 'Too Much Pain' is an absolute true story, haha. I really wanted to move to California, because I missed everything about it so much. The rainy days here were getting too much for me, I like being outside all the time. I would say skateboarding was the biggest influence for The X Days."
Why was skateboarding such a huge influence?
"In my hometown, haha, it was the only thing that made me happy."
That's awesome. I can't believe you haven't been on the radio yet!
"I know! Same!"
Who were your biggest musical influences before you started writing?
"Lorde had just popped up on my TV screen one day and I was like, who is this girl? How does she do that? She was so great. But mostly myself, because you can't do what other people do. I find that so awesome."
So what did you learn most, then, after these wrapped?
"I learned so much...like, I learned how important it is to do what you love. That's something I'll never forget."
...
"So many things got in the way, I felt like. I had just gotten out of rehab in March 2013, so that was a milestone but everything leading up to that were getting in the way of it. So I learned to keep pushing myself, you know, climb every mountain. Because I didn't want to end up hurting other people mostly."
Congrats, I cannot wait for this to go big. I hope you get to California, too!
"Ahh, thanks. Thank you!"
Interviewed by Piper Hue for willowbabyofficial.com